What’s In Your Pack? – Skinny’s Picks for Day Hiking Essentials

What you carry in your pack can determine whether a minor injury turns into a epic, or is just a minor inconvenience. The classic list of the ’10 essentials’ breaks down the necessities into an easy to understand list of things that can get you out of the mountains, or get your through the night.

Here’s the Ten Essentials Classic List:

Map

Compass (optionally supplemented with a GPS receiver)

Sunglasses and sunscreen

Extra clothing

Headlamp (or flashlight)

First-aid supplies

Firestarter

Matches

Knife

Extra food

In 2003, the essential list was revised as part of the seventh edition of Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills[4] to keep up with modern equipment. The current edition, 8th edition[3] continues with the new essentials list with no major revisions. The new list takes a “systems” or functional approach.

See this list of some essentials, as well as a few nice-to-haves, to help you with packing for your next day hike.
Watch our blog, The Skinny, for more posts in the future, where we share things to do, and how to prepare for them.